The best (and the best written) book about Austen that has appeared in the last three decades."--Nina Auerbach, "Journal of English and Germanic Philology" "By looking at the ways in which Austen domesticates the gothic in "Northanger Abbey, " examines the conventions of male inheritance and its negative impact on attempts to define the family as a site of care and generosity in "Sense and Sensibility, " makes claims for the desirability of 'personal happiness as a liberating moral category' in "Pride and Prejudice, " validates the rights of female authority in "Emma, " and stresses the benefits of female independence in "Persuasion, " Johnson offers an original and persuasive reassessment of Jane Austen's thought."--Kate Fullbrook, "Times Higher Education Supplement